Personal digital assistants (PDAs) are typical of computers that utilize contact-sensitive displays. A PDA is small in size, usually suited to be held by a user on one hand and operated by another hand. The display of the PDA is used to provide additional input functionality in lieu of a large keyboard, a mouse or other input mechanism that is incompatible with the size and portability of the PDA.
PDAs often provide an active input area on the display, which is a designated region on the display where most of the user-contact and input is entered. One type of active input area used in PALM OS and POCKET PC devices provides for a handwriting recognition area to appear on the display. The user can form strokes on the region of the display where the handwriting recognition area is provided, and technology such as provided by GRAFFITI or JOT, is used recognize the strokes as characters.
Because the handwriting recognition area is often a frequent location of the user's attention, other input functionality is usually provided in conjunction with or next to the handwriting recognition area. This other input functionality is often in the form of icons and task bars that can be selected in order to cause the PDA to perform some function. In addition, electronic keyboards can be substituted on the display in place of the handwriting recognition area.
Recently, devices such as TABLET PCs have become popular. Such devices also utilize an immediate handwriting recognition square for recognizing contact strokes provided on a display as characters.